Taishan Dialect |
Up until the late 1900s, the Taishan dialect has been the predominant dialect used by most of the Chinese immigrants around the world. It is considered as a subset of the Cantonese dialect although many people who speak Cantonese have claimed that they don't understand this at all. There is really no "official" Taishan dialect as this is a rural dialect and has also been identified as a dialect for people that immigrated from the Four Districts ( However, there has been a great push by some to preserve this dialect as it is feared that it may get lost due to the mainstreaming of the Cantonese and Mandarin dialects. Mandarin is the official dialect being used in Taishan nowadays and it would be almost impossible to hear this dialect being spoken in TV or radio shows. However, it is still being used as street language talk by the locals although it is becoming less being used due to the huge migration of immigrants from the other Chinese provinces into Taishan. Books about the Taishanese dialect are not readily available. There are 2 known dictionaries that are published regarding this dialect but at least one of them is out of print now. However, it has recently been brought to attention that there is reading material available by the US Education Resources Information Center regarding this dialect. This material was developed back in the United States during the 1960-1970 and are available in the following links:
It should be noted that the information provided in these links don't necessarily reflect the views of this website or what the Taishan dialect should be. It is intended though that this information along with audio recordings will be available in the future. |
) which includes Taishan, Kaiping, Xinhui, and Enping as well. The truth of the matter is that there are differences in the way how words are pronounced among the four districts. As a matter of fact, there are even differences in the Taishan dialect depending on which part of Taishan one is from.